Fluffly Lemon Cloud Cake

This fluffy lemon cloud cake is the first thing I always want to eat at the end of Passover (and it was my birthday cake from a few years ago). 

This lovely, 2-tiered cake was so much fun to make and not nearly as tricky to decorate as it looks.

Flourless Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

So, as is not uncommon, this year my birthday fell on Passover. The first night, to be exact. So, of course, I made cake. Flourless chocolate cake "crust," raspberry cheesecake layer, and classic vanilla bean cheesecake layer. I made this cake the last time my birthday fell on Passover, too, decorating with chocolate curls. This year, I went all-out with chocolate ganache and shiny glazed raspberries.

 

Alright, so we start with the chocolate "cake" base. Bake it in whatever size spring form pan you're using for your cheesecake and use whatever recipe you love or your Bubbe has passed down. Splurge on a really rich recipe, like this, and bake it up according to the directions.

Pouring the vanilla cheesecake batter over the chocolate. Bake it again, and meanwhile...

Take a whole bunch of raspberries (fresh or frozen work fine, but I find fresh to have a stronger flavor) and puree them.

Simmer for about 20 minutes--we're reducing them to concentrate the flavor because when you add too much liquid to the cheesecake batter it messes with the texture. Reducing the mixture evaporates some of the excess liquid while leaving the tasty flavor.

Combine the raspberry sauce with the other half of the cheesecake batter. 

And pour over the baked vanilla cheesecake later, baking again until it's done. 

 

We seem to have skipped a few steps, but I covered the top of the cake in my beloved chocolate ganache and dressed this gluten free cake up with chocolate curls. 

 

 Yumm... Rich, creamy, and gluten free/Passover friendly birthday cake.

 This treat is incredibly rich, so serve it in small slices.

 This year's cake used tons of fresh, juicy raspberries.

 

I covered the cake in chocolate ganache, topping with fresh raspberries and brushing a honey glaze onto the raspberries to give them that extra shine. 

 

Happy Passover, and happy birthday to me!

Purple Ombre Sprinkle Cake

 

Alright, we're making sprinkle cake today. You'll need ingredients for your favorite vanilla cake recipe, a round cake pan (I used a 7 inch), and whole lot of sprinkles.

Mix up the vanilla recipe and evenly divide the batter into however many bowls you like. I used 5 colors so I can get a true ombre effect from white to dark purple. Each color will be a layer of cake. Tint each batter with increasingly more purple, or whatever color you're using. I start light and then move to the darker colors so if I mess up (say, I add too much purple to the lightest purple) I still have enough batter to mix up another lightest purple and use the other one as a middle color.

Okay, so we skipped a few steps. Bake the cakes, stack them with your favorite frosting recipe (I used this creamy buttercream). Ice the outside of the cake, throw some sprinkles at it (yes, literally). I promise you a better tutorial sometime in the future...

 Ta da! I used fresh strawberries between the layers as well. Doesn't cut as clean, but the taste is great and really, when you're making cake that's what counts. Very impressive and, if you have some patience, really not much harder than a traditional layer cake (except for the mess!).

Every year, my mom asks for a sprinkle cake for her birthday. This year's sprinkle cake (on the bunny stand, far right) was a smaller affair, but very sweet nonetheless.

My Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake!

It was my birthday last month, so of course I made myself a cake. And yes, I do make my own birthday cakes. I wouldn't have it any other way. 
 

 My suitemates did make me a brownie cake though, and that was pretty awesome. 

 Anyways, this towering little cake is red velvet. 

4 layers: two with mini chocolate chips and 2 without. 

That's a HUGE glop of chocolate ganache on top. Then I dumped some chocolate chips on it. 

Why? Because I can. 

The pink frosting, by the way, is cream cheese. So easy to make and oh so delicious. I didn't take any pictures of the insides because we were too busy eating it. It was my birthday, cut me some slack!